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I love hosting at Christmas, especially since we moved to our house. I love having family and friends around, dinner parties and decorating for the season. I love that any time of the year but especially Christmas. I don’t find it stressful, mainly because I love taking my time to prepare for it. The preparation for Christmas and the anticipation is what makes Christmas season is wonderful. Plus the small bits of mini celebrations: having friends around for a drink, Saturday night Christmas movies. All these always revolve around festive food and drinks for me – you can’t take the Hungarian out of me. And so I absolutely love coming up with something new every year along with my hits of nut roast. This year I also made Chocolate Salami – which is a super simple, no-bake festive dessert and another new treat: Jewelled Christmas Cheese Bites. These can be either a treat, appetiser, snack or even dessert.
Jewelled Christmas Cheese: Make it with Vegan or Traditional Cheese
This can be vegan or vegetarian depending on your preference. Or both! I tell you what: Jewelled Christmas Cheese when it’s vegan is an absolute perfect cheat to get noon-vegans to try vegan cheese. True, that plain vegan cheese is not very exciting. Cannot be compared to a real mature cheddar or any good cheese. I’m not trying to pretend that. But served on a little more exciting way, like this recipe, will definitely win some people over. Maybe not forever, but they won’t reject the idea of vegan cheese that much.
What Cheese to Buy for Jewelled Christmas Cheese Bites?
For the traditional version:
Use any traditional, soft round cheese such as Brie, Camembert, Robiola, St Albray, Mato, etc.
For the vegan version:
Use any soft round cheese that in texture resembles the above traditional types.
What Ingredients Do You Need For Jewelled Christmas Cheese Bites?
- vegan or vegetarian cheese
- dried cranberries
- bright green leafy herbs like parsley, coriander (cilantro), basil, chives or even the mix of them. They just need to be fresh, not dried, not only for the taste but mainly for the colour
- caramelised nuts, any type really, whatever is your preference. I used a mix of them with a hint of salt
- maple syrup or alternatively honey, but I think the taste of maple syrup is a better match
- pretzel sticks
Tips When Making Jewelled Christmas Cheese Bites
You can cut the cheese to any thickness you prefer, as long as it’s triangle shaped so it will look like a mini Christmas tree. I cut the round camembert into 6 little triangles, then I halved them horizontally again, so they are the same shape just thinner.
You can halve the pretzel sticks too, depending on the length of them.
I think the even mixture of the caramelised nuts (store bought), green herbs and dried cranberries are the best, but you can use more or less of anything, it’s just going to be less sweet or less herby. (By the way, I tried the mixture when roasting nut roast – or any roast – sprinkling over it for the last few minutes in the oven, and it worked really well.)
These Jewelled Christmas Cheese bites will not last. You will have to prepare them on the spot and eat them immediately. The maximum is an hour or two in the fridge, COVERED, so it will not go funny and dry.
Jewelled Christmas Cheese
Ingredients
- 150 g vegan or traditional camembert
- 6-12 pretzel sticks you can halve them or not
- 1 handful dried cranberries
- 1 handful caramelised nuts any nuts or the mix of them
- 1 hanfdul fresh parsley or cilantro
- 2-3 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- Cut the round shape cheese into 3 segments and halve them lengthwise, so they are still a triangle shape just less chunky.
- Measure out equal amounts of fresh parsley, caramelised nuts and dried cranberries. Chop them finely and mix them together.
- In a shallow plate, measure out two-three tablespoons of maple syrup and mix.
- Stick the bottom of the triangle shaped cheese bite on pretzel stick, dip all sides into the maple syrup, follows by the nut and fruit mixture and voila - all ready to serve.Enjoy!
